The impact of shopping is dropping

There’s a bargain to be struck between environmental cost and convenience.

Shopping – there are those who love it and those who loathe it. Either
way,
no one can deny it plays a big part in our lives

A recent survey suggests that British women alone will spend
around
eight-and-a-half years of their lives indulging in retail therapy. Online, the European
market
alone was worth £201.9 bn in 2016.

Shopaholics can enjoy the convenience of having purchases
delivered
to their door, but all this consumption comes at an environmental cost. Experts have
identified
"the last mile", meaning the final delivery stretch from a distribution centre to your
home,
as having the gravest impact. So how can the retail sector re-balance convenience with
environmental
impact?

With the help of new technologies, the retail sector is
working
to cut down on the environmental cost of delivery journeys by upgrading distribution
accuracy,
ordering processes and the vehicles being used.

Getting it right first time, every time

Before the consumer even sees a product, shopping is taken
its
toll on the environment through the wasted journeys in the supply chain, caused by the
wrong
product being put into the delivery vehicle. To make shifting vast quantities of goods
more
accurate and efficient, Hitachi has been developing the autonomous mobile dual-arm
robot.
This robot is capable of picking items from shelves in warehouses, even where many
different
types of products are kept. This stockroom hero is super accurate, meaning the correct
products
find their way onto the delivery vehicles and to the customer. This means fewer wasted
deliveries
- good news for the consumer and for the environment.

Try before you buy just got a whole new meaning

There’s always a slight gamble when buying a new product online.
Luckily,
smart tech is taking away the guesswork.

Artificial Intelligence is being used by online retailers to
generate
customer recommendations
based on previous purchases, making it easier for shoppers to decide what to buy. You
can now even try before you buy online.
Ikea recently launched its “Place” app
, which lets people drop virtual furniture models into their own homes and view
them
through their smartphone camera using augmented reality (AR). By giving customers the
opportunity
to visualise over 2,000 products before they buy, Ikea has reimagined the idea of ‘try
before
you buy’ in the digital age. AR allows products to be scaled according to different
room
dimensions, with 98% accuracy, and are viewed with such precision that customers can
see
their texture, colour and how light and shadow are visible on furnishings. This means
that
customers are less likely to return the item and avoid a wasted journey.

Electrifying the last mile

It’s unlikely that we are going to change our online
shopping
habits overnight. Thankfully, electric and other zero-emission vehicles are promising
to
make the last mile a whole lot greener. Last mile journeys typically fall within the
100-mile
range of electric vehicles, making them well suited as delivery vehicles. In Europe,
the
Frevue project supports the
introduction
of electric freight vehicles to demonstrate and evaluate innovative urban logistics
solutions.
Ultimately, the project is seeking to establish “essentially CO2-free city logistics in
major
urban centres by 2030.”

By streamlining the supply chain, reducing waste and cutting
emissions,
smart tech is helping to redress the balance between our shopping habits and the toll
on
the planet. More can be done, but technology holds the answer to overcoming buyers’
remorse
about our planet.